sunshinecapturer's Reviews (271)

liked:
- sapphic romance

disliked: 
- read like fanfic (If it was fanfic it would be good, but I expect a published book to stand on its own a little more with world building, characters, and quality of writing). 
- the historicality was iffy. I would have less of an issue with this if it wasn't labeled as historical fiction and if it didn't have a note to the reader stating it was a work of historical fiction. The interactions with the Indigenous group was especially not well done-- I think the author did try & I appreciate that but it was very cliché, and very white folk centered. 

the description makes the book sound much more exciting than it is. The last quarter was exciting, but it was slow going before that, and I found myself skimming here and there. The main character stayed too naive for too long for me;

like being surprised that all these men always have a knife?! Girl why don't YOU have a knife?!? That's a pretty basic tool to have on the prairie, and especially in a somewhat dangerous profession

 
I have read way too many louis l'amour's in my life so I was excited to find a sapphic western, and while this story is interesting, it got tripped up a bit on the execution, which was a tad disappointing. 
That being said, I didn't hate it either, and if you can overlook the pacing issues and a main character that might get on your nerves, it's worth a read! 

the author is clearly skilled at writing, and the essays were about somewhat interesting topics, but overall it was a very meh read. 
- Most of the essays were written in the late 90s and early 2000s, but were not updated or even noted when they were written, which made for a confusing read, especially when it came to outdated information. 
- Many of the essays were poorly wrapped up and lacked a satisfying conclusion, often leaving me wondering what the point was. 
- The final essay 'Farmville' was terribly edited, if it was edited at all. I think it was a collection of blog posts, and it read like it. Stories overlapped and repeated within a page or two. 
-  Despite being a book on animals, and the author describing herself as animal-ish, as others have said, she seems to mostly view animals as interesting objects to collect. Which is fine if suppose, but if you're coming to this book hoping to read about animals through a compassionate & loving view, you're in the wrong place. 
Overall, could've been better with some editing, but as it is, very mediocre and not really worth reading. 

quarter way through but I just can't do it. All the characters are extremely meh and the writing is not great :(